This week, 100Kin10—a national network with a goal of training and retaining 100,000 excellent K–12 science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) teachers by 2021—announced a key milestone during the organization’s annual partner summit at the San Diego Zoo:

The San Diego Zoo prepares to say farewell to two much-loved giant pandas—however, its conservation efforts on behalf of this iconic species will continue. In honoring the terms of the Zoo’s conservation loan agreement with the People’s Republic of China, 27-year-old female giant panda Bai Yun (pronounced bye yoon) and her son, 6-year-old Xiao Liwu (pronounced sshyaoww lee woo), will leave the San Diego Zoo in April and will be repatriated to their ancestral homeland.

Chimpanzees are well known for their extraordinary diversity of behaviors—including using tools for hunting or digging, cracking nuts with stones and using moss as a water-drawing sponge—with some behaviors also exhibiting cultural variation.

A huge celebration took place at UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital earlier today (March 7, 2019), complete with San Diego Zoo Safari Park animals—including a tamandua, a sloth, and a kinkajou—and a 15-foot-long lion puppet, and flamingo and giraffe puppets from the San Diego Zoo!

San Diego Zoo Global researchers have confirmed the presence of rare black leopards living in Laikipia County, Kenya. Sometimes called black panthers, the melanistic leopards were filmed in Lorok, Laikipia County, Kenya on remote cameras that were set up as part of a large-scale study aimed at understanding the population dynamics of leopards in Mpala and Loisaba Conservancies.

San Diego Zoo Global’s horticultural works are in the spotlight this month, with the United States Botanic Garden (USBG) in Washington, D.C. including landscape designs from both the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park in a new exhibit.